In the fabrication of many electrical products it is frequently necessary to establish a plurality of upstanding terminal pins on a substrate. For example, on printed circuit boards, it is necessary to establish terminal points to which external wiring can be secured. Likewise, in many non-electrical applications, it is necessary to insert preformed elements into a given substrate. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,448, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, there is disclosed a method and an apparatus for inserting terminal pins into a substrate such as a printed circuit board. The apparatus disclosed in said patent operates from a continuous supply strip of integrally connected preformed terminal pins which terminate at their opposite ends in pointed end portions thereby defining notches between the adjacent pins. The apparatus includes reciprocating feeding means for sequentially advancing the supply strip toward the workpiece, shearing means for severing the leading one of the pins from the remainder of the supply strip, and driving means for inserting the severed lead one of the pins into the workpiece.